This invention relates to a transducer head assembly and more particularly to a self-loading negative pressure air bearing slider for magnetic heads.
Magnetic head assemblies that fly relative to magnetic disks have been used extensively. The objectives for improving the transducing relationship between a magnetic transducer and a magnetic disk include a close spacing between the transducer and the disk, and to maintain such spacing at a constant flying height Close spacing, when used with very narrow transducing gaps and very thin magnetic recording films, allows short wave-length, high-frequency signals to be recorded, thereby affording high density, high storage capacity recording.
In accessing disks, for example, the flying height of a magnetic head assembly varies as the head is moved radially to different data tracks because the angular velocity of the rotating disks at the outer tracks is greater than that at the inner tracks. Maintaining a near constant flying height over the disk surface is desirable because it allows the average fly height from inner to outer radius to be reduced thus allowing a higher storage density without reducing reliability.
One way of providing for a near constant magnetic head-to-disk spacing is to use a self-loading negative pressure air bearing slider. By providing a negative pressure air bearing as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,135 issued Oct. 2, 1984, to Warner et al . . . differences in air track speed between an inner and outer track on a rotating disk cause compensating changes in the positive and negative pressures on the air bearing slider which result in a near constant magnetic head-to-disk spacing.
The manufacture of a negative pressure air bearing designed to fly at very low flying heights relative to the disk surface is difficult. A process which provides repeatable, physical dimensions of the magnetic head slider and employs a laser is disclosed in pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 06/910593, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,785,161, filed Sept. 23, 1986 and is assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. In the design known to the art, machining by various means must be made to the trailing edge of the magnetic head slider. The machining employed must remove material from the thin film magnetic transducer assembly. The present invention is a side-vented magnetic head air bearing slider which eliminates the need to machine the thin film transducer assembly material.